Every year the CHA office prepares a budget for the financial year (August - July) which is presented for approval.
This budget covers all the expected activities of the year, based on costs of similar events in the previous years. Here, the experience of the CH Club has been useful.
The main cost is the production and distribution of the Old Blue, which takes up most of the budget.
Other items relate to office costs (stationery, support of the Sections, etc), Events (House Reunions, Old Blues Day, Carol Service etc) and others, such as purchase and distribution of the School Blue to leaving grecians.
To cover these costs there are 3 main income streams.
When the CH Club disbanded, the remnant funds were transferred to the CHA and "ring fenced" to cover the production of the Old Blue magazine. The income from these funds goes a long way to covering the production costs of the semi annual edition of the magazine.
As a guiding principal, every Old Blue event should "wash its face", ie, should at least cover it's costs. Almost without exception, events require set up costs, and these are carefully calculated and hopefully recovered from the event itself. Mailings, research, commitment fees for venues, all require up front money, hence the need to charge for events and recover as much as possible. Any surplus goes into the pot to help fund the next event.
The CHA purchases and distributes the School Blue to Old Blues who order it, prepayment is required. Again, upfront costs must be recovered from sales.
Certain Old Blues have continued to pay subscriptions as though it were to the CH Club, and these funds are directed to the CHA.
One Old Blue, Barclay Hankin, produced a book and the proceeds have been given to the Association.
At the end of the day, the shortfall/budget requirement is calculated and included in the CHA budget presented for approval.
It is early days yet and we are still dependant on CH for funding (on page 21 of the CH report and Financial Statement for 2005 under designated Funds there is a mention of Alumni Funds), but hopefully we will get to a position where we no longer require this support.

With respect to your specific question, subscriptions have been partially replaced with income from other sources and obviously a lack of funds does inhibit our activities. But possibly the main inhibitor is the manpower to do all that Old Blues would like to do.
However, as they say, where there's a will, there's a way.

As I cannot reply in the questions part of the forum, I should just like to thank John Hopgood for his comprehensive reply to my question.

Julian, Thank you for adding a reply facility to this section.

John, a small supplementary question if I may. I vaguely remember reading somewhere on this forum that the CHA does not have it's own bank account. How then are these funds (...."Certain Old Blues have continued to pay subscriptions as though it were to the CH Club, and these funds are directed to the CHA"......) identified and directed?

Mid A 15 wrote:John, a small supplementary question if I may. I vaguely remember reading somewhere on this forum that the CHA does not have it's own bank account. How then are these funds (...."Certain Old Blues have continued to pay subscriptions as though it were to the CH Club, and these funds are directed to the CHA"......) identified and directed?

I will ask if the CHA has it's own account, although since the CHA is part of CH and not a separate legal entity, it makes little sense.
The Board receives a regular spreadsheet showing income and expenses so we know that funds are received and can also see that about 25% of the non interest income came from the sale of Barclay's book and subscriptions.
When the CHC closed there was discussion as to how to handle subscriptions since most were either cheques or standing orders. Once the CHC account was closed, the standing order would bounce as there was nowhere for it to be credited. Most people probably would not notice, but those who did would phone the office where Wendy would explain the situation and suggest the alternatives. The same explanation also applied to those who sent in cheques.
Those who wanted to continue to support the Old Blues, rather than donate to the school or BSB, were given an account number to credit and asked to ensure that the standing order identified that the funds were for CHA.
The bookkeepers, or bean counters as they are sometimes known, would then identify this on the bank statement and internally book the money to the CHA.
That, at least was the theory, and because the money appeared I assumed it was also the practice.
However, to set both our minds at rest I will ask Wendy if this really is the case

All John's comments here are correct.
Anyone who wishes to pay funds into the CHA in lieu of Club Fees can do so, or they can choose to give their donation to the school or the BSB.
Any funds which we (gratefully) receive are paid into the main bank account, but are sectioned off into our own pot of money for the CHA to use in the continuation and development of our activities.

All Old Blues are automatically members of the Christ's Hospital Association (whether or not they previously belonged to the Christ's Hospital Club or the Old Girls' Association - and will be kept in the information/publicity loop providing the office has your details (yes Mary, you are right!)